1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention disclosed and claimed herein is believed to be best exemplified by art which may be found in the United States Patent Office in Class 285, Subclasses 114, 253, 328, 373, 382, 382.1, 382.2, 399, 403, 419, and 420 in which a preliminary search has been conducted.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art listed below was in an endeavor to ascertain patentable merit in the invention disclosed and claimed herein:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,719,345-Riker PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,993,255-Jagiel PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,109,215-Brown PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,222,090-Powers et al PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,134-Engman et al PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,385-Heckethorn PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,577-Beebe PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,759-Heckethorn PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,943-Armstrong
Of the patents listed above, Riker, Jagiel, Brown Powers et al, Engman et al, Beebe, Heckethorn '385, and Heckethorn '759, are of interest in that they disclose various forms of U-bolt clamps, each of which includes a saddle member for cooperatively clamping a U-bolt around a pipe or the like. Each of the saddle members disclosed in these patents include tubular portions for receiving only the two ends of a single U-bolt.
The Armstrong patent relates to a muffler clamp assembly which includes two plates disposed in superposed relationship to each other on the same side of the pipe sections to be coupled thereby. Each clamping plate in the Armstrong patent includes a pair of upstanding flanges for a total of four flanges. The clamping device in the Armstrong patent appears to generally resemble the structure disclosed in Applicant's prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,286 of which the invention disclosed in the instant application constitutes an improvement.